


Sink, Swim, or Sleepwalk

by agrestenoir



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cuddles, F/M, Kissing, Light Angst, Sleepwalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 12:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9071104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrestenoir/pseuds/agrestenoir
Summary: Chat Noir simply stared at her. “Why…” He swallowed a lump in the back of his throat. “Why do you go to Adrien Agreste’s house?”Ladybug pursed her lips in a thin line, a dark red tinting the tips of her ears. “…I like the décor.”“Décor?” Chat Noir asked with a resolute expression.“Oh yes.” Ladybug gulped, gaze skittering across the Parisian skyline. “I love looking at that boy’s décor.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays to [@tanukisenpai](https://tmblr.co/mL2nkaUa95Y0kJctwy77MMw)! I’m your ML Secret Santa for 2016. I really grooved with your fluffy fluff and lovable scenario prompts, and I did my best. I really hope you like it, but if you don’t, feel free to let me know and I can make you something else. <3 Hope you have a wonderful day. 

The Worst Things in the World by Chat Noir and Ladybug

1.      Akumas  
2.      Homework  
3.      Not having enough Camembert.  
4.      Sleepwalking across Paris rooftops.  
5.      Losing your partner.  
6.      Not being able to trust your partner.

*

She wasn’t sure when the sleepwalking started.

It was more of a gradual thing than a sudden one (although it was certainly a shock to the system when she woke up on the top of the Eiffel Tower with Chat Noir’s arms wrapped around her waist). It wasn’t the result of one of Hawkmoth’s akumas, and it didn’t have anything to do with the side effects from her Miraculous. 

To put it simply, Marinette was tired. 

Balancing her social life, her superhero duties, and her school responsibilities took more time and effort than she had to spare, and while she’d never broached the subject with her partner, she knew Chat Noir dealt with the same issues. The blank, heavy stares and echoing yawns between the two of them at the end of a patrol were more than enough evidence to clue her in on the toll their lives were taking on them. Chat Noir acknowledged that he dealt with the stress through fencing. Marinette, on the other hand, had found an unorthodox way of approaching it.

Sleepwalking across Paris rooftops.

Sleepwalking had been a major issue when she was younger. Often times, her parents shared stories of finding her standing in the middle of the kitchen trying to bake, oven on and lights ablaze. Once they even caught her scampering through her skylight, which led to a month-long lockdown from her rooftop access in case she tried to sleepwalk off the balcony at night. There was never really a rhyme or reason for why it began, and eventually the incidents petered out before any drastic action had to be taken. 

Now that it had started up again, she wasn’t sure how to handle it. 

The first time, she transformed into Ladybug and scaled the Eiffel Tower, only awakening when Chat Noir had interrupted her. Tikki suggested locking herself in her room to make sure no one saw Ladybug prowling around Marinette’s home, but the idea quickly turned sour when they learned sleepwalking Ladybug knew how to use bobby pins to pick locks. (Honestly, at this point in time, Marinette was vaguely impressed with herself. She didn’t remember ever learning how to pick a lock. Sleepwalking Ladybug was much more efficient than wide-awake Ladybug.)

Marinette had never been _scared_ of the power being Ladybug gave her before, and even now, she couldn’t bring herself to fear it. It was more the fact that she had this power burning under her skin, squirming to find a way out whenever she donned the mask, and suddenly she was faced with the possibility of _not being able to control it_. On a regular basis, Marinette had a fair amount of control over her life (okay, not generally, but she _at least_ had a handle on things _sometimes_ ), but when things slipped out of her grasp even just a little, chaos ensued. 

Locking herself in her room didn’t help. Having Tikki hide the Miraculous when she slept wouldn’t help either. What if the city needed Ladybug, and she was too busy digging through her sock drawer for the back of an earring to help? No, Marinette decided, there had to be safe guards put in place. Paris needed to be protected from a sleepwalking Ladybug, and the sleepwalking Ladybug needed to be protected from herself. One of these days she might do something she couldn’t come back from. 

After two weeks of incidents (and accidents) piled up, too big to ignore but still too delicate to be open and honest about, Marinette found the answer to her problems.

Chat Noir. 

He tended to be a constant during the tremulous time, and maybe even the answer to her prayers. He shook her out of it the first time around, catching her at the top of the Eiffel Tower, just staring out at the city. When she hadn’t responded to his greetings, he investigated and found her in a trance, blearily meeting his gaze when she finally awoke. In a scramble of limbs and noise, she flung her arms around his neck and held on for dear life, squeezing her eyes shut tightly and refusing to look down. His usual quips and charismatic smiles were vacant, and instead, concern was etched upon his face in furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips.

He’d been scared, Marinette remembered. He’d been scared and thought there was an akuma. He hadn’t realize it had been… just _her._

Now, she needed him.

His soft eyes fell over her like a fluffy blanket settling around her shoulders in effort to calm her, arm sliding behind her back as he braced himself against the beam of the Eiffel Tower the two sat on. She sighed and cocked her head, already knowing what was coming, because her partner only retreated into a quiet, steady hum when an important matter was at hand. Normally, he was a raging crescendo of sound and light crashing through her ever-chaotic world, so the little moments were definitely out of the ordinary and impossible to ignore.

“So you sleepwalk,” Chat Noir began, a certain gleam glowing amidst the green.

Ladybug shrugged half-heartedly, eyes fixed on her clasped hands instead of meeting his gaze. “I used to do it a lot when I was younger. I thought I’d grown out of it, but obviously…”

“So you just wander around _at_ night, but you’re still asleep?”

She shook her head, a low chuckle slipping from her lips and echoing between the two of them. “ _Ladybug_ wanders around at night while I’m asleep, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’d like to ignore it, but I guess I have a certain fondness for heights and Adrien Agreste’s house.”

Chat Noir’s mouth hung agape, short stammers and half-formed sentences falling out, and she wondered if she’d well and truly broken her partner. “ _What_?” he finally managed with a somewhat manic expression.

Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut tight to prevent the memory from playing out in her mind’s eye, but the afterimage was burned on the back of her lids. Waking up from a deep sleep at a sharp _smack_ against Adrien Agreste’s window pane hadn’t been her most spectacular moment as one of Paris’s famed superheroes. She’d ended up stumbling around the grounds of the Agreste mansion with blurry vision and groans of pain, trying to figure out why exactly she was in Adrien’s yard, how she’d gotten there, and why she was Ladybug. 

Putting two and two together, especially after Chat Noir had awakened her two days before, led her into a blind panic because she couldn’t accept that four (read: sleepwalking) might be the answer this equation. It had taken another couple visits before she realized the sleepwalking issue might not go away on its own, and that her face was quickly becoming a permanent fixture on Adrien’s window, much to her chagrin and the window cleaner’s dismay. 

Chat Noir simply stared at her. “Why…” He swallowed a lump in the back of his throat as if he was trying to clear a path for the words to come from. “Why do you go to Adrien Agreste’s house?”

Ladybug pursed her lips in a thin line, a dark red tinting the tips of her ears. “…I like the décor.”

“Décor?” Chat Noir asked with a resolute expression.

“Oh _yes_.” Ladybug gulped, gaze skittering across the Parisian skyline. “I love looking at that boy’s décor.”

“You’ve got to be kitten me.” Chat Noir’s voice was breathless.

Silence lingered between them as she hugged her knees and tried to pass her burning cheeks off as a pink dusting from the blustery wind. Chat Noir shifted beside her—she could hear the scrape of his metal-tipped boots against the beam—and leaned closer, until his warm breath tickled the back of her neck. 

“So what d’you need me to do about it?”

She bit her bottom lip, gnawing at it between her teeth, and shrugged. “If you see _me_ out and about at night, just make sure I’m all _there_.”

“How do you know I’ll be out and about myself, my Lady?” Chat Noir asked, lips stretched thin with his canary-wide grin. “Have you been keeping tabs on your tom cat?”

Ladybug raised her head and peered over the top of her crossed arms, meeting his smile with a soft one of her own. Head cocked to the side, blonde hair dusting her shoulder, Chat Noir merely nodded, settled back on his haunches, and stared out over the slumbering city. Both knew he rarely spent a night in, going out for an hour at least—even if it was just to get some air and clear his head. Regardless if it was his day for patrol, he ended up spending a few minutes at her side every day. 

“So just come over and _bug_ you until you wake up?” he asked her.

“Just make sure I don’t fall off a roof or something.” _Or crawl into Adrien Agreste’s bed,_ she added to herself. 

Chat Noir turned back to her, a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes, and somehow Ladybug knew she was going to be alright. 

“Don’t worry, m’Lady,” he said, “You can trust me.”

*

Other than that first night she asked for her little favor, they didn’t talk about her sleepwalking. 

If she awoke to find herself atop Notre Dame, Chat Noir merely tucked her yo-yo back into the palm of her hands and wished her a good night, disappearing into the shadows to go back home. Occasionally, she’d find herself perched on the fence lining the Agreste mansion, Chat Noir’s hands on her shoulders and a wry smile dancing on his lips. Each time he’d lead her away from high places and Adrien’s house, staying by her side until he was sure she was awake and coherent.

She wondered why she had been so nervous asking her partner to watch out for her in the first place. Things like this fell into the job description, taking care of each other, and as appreciative as she was of Chat Noir’s help, she knew she would have done the same thing if he was in her shoes without even having been asked.

That’s what partners did.

If she hadn’t known any better (if Tikki hadn’t said anything about it), Marinette would have forgotten about the incidents altogether, assuming that the issue had resolved itself on its own. It wasn’t until her partner landed lightly on the rooftop beside her after their night of patrol together, silence ensuing his arrival, that she realized something was wrong.

Her curiosity piqued. Chat Noir was never quiet.

He slipped like a shadow across the roof, footsteps soft as if not to scare her, before settling down against the brick-walled chimney she’d claimed as her base. “You awake tonight, bug?” he asked in a low voice.

Her eyes searched his face for something amiss, like he was hiding a secret behind a thinly-veiled smile. It wouldn’t be the first time he pretended like all was right while the world burned around him. In the few months she’d known her partner, she’d seen him at his best and at his worst—there was little they could hide from one another now a days. However, there were still times where she couldn’t see through his laughter and charisma, no matter how hard she tried.

“Do you have a new stealth ability I don’t know about?” 

He raised his eyebrows in quiet bemusement, a soft chuckle spilling between them. “Why? Did I scare you?”

“No, you’re just…” She paused, gaze flickering across his again if only to find… “You’re just really quiet tonight.”

Chat Noir shrugged half-heartedly. “I’m just tired,” he told her, refusing to meet her questioning eyes. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

 _But I do_ , she insisted silently to herself. _You work so hard to keep me safe, and I want to return the favor. I want to make sure you’re okay too._

But Ladybug found that she couldn’t admit it to him. For one, it was apparent he didn’t want to talk about his problems with her, and while she might pry with her other friends, she wouldn’t pressure her partner into divulging his secrets. He was silent for a reason, and it would be wrong of her to press him on it. Chat Noir did many things for her; she just couldn’t bring herself to ask any more of him.

“Do you ever remember what happens?” he suddenly asked, rolling his shoulders as he settled back against the chimney. “When you’re sleepwalking?”

“Not really,” she said, “but once I ate a whole jar of peanut butter.” She winced as she recalled the taste that assaulted her dreams, the smell so sharp that it had overwhelmed her. Sometimes, not often, she’d get a flash or two of the events that took place during her sleepwalking episodes, but usually she had no recollection unless someone mentioned something to her. 

“Oh.” 

“Why?” Ladybug cocked her head to the side, trying to gauge her partner’s reaction.

Chat Noir didn’t immediately answer, but he didn’t turn away either. Instead, he blew out a long breath and shook his head, chuckling lowly to himself. “The first time I saw you sleepwalking,” he said, “I was really freaked out.”

“It can be a bit…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of the words to properly describe the ordeal. Having never seen herself sleepwalk, she couldn’t exactly explain what happened, only gauging the story from different sources who were unfortunate to have witnessed it. “I’m not all there, and I guess it can be a bit weird.”

He snorted in response. “It was like you were catatonic.”

Ladybug froze, narrowing her eyes as she studied her partner. “Did you just make a cat pu—?”

“No, absolutely not.” Chat Noir jumped to his feet, staff in hand as he approached the edge of roof. “I would never—”

“—Chat Noir—”

“—and it’s getting late, my Lady, so I hope you have a wonderful—”

“—you did, you silly cat—”

“—cat puns? That’s pre _paw_ sterous, bug—”

“—Chat Noir!”

“—must be confursing me with some other cat—”

“—Chat, don’t you _dare_ —”

“—just look at the time, I need to go—”

“— _Chat Noir!”_

“—okay, love you, _bye_!” 

He leapt off the roof without a glance back, air whistling past him as he fell, and Ladybug could only watch her partner swing off a balcony and soar off into the Paris sky. 

It wasn’t until she headed home herself, nestled under a mound of blankets with Tikki slumbering on her pillow, that she remembered her original concern for her partner. Drifting off, her last thoughts circled around her partner as she wondered if her sleepwalking was truly as troubling as he made it seem. 

Chat Noir, as she already knew, had a funny habit of pretending things were alright even if they were dead wrong. 

*

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything when you sleepwalk?” Chat Noir asked her again the very next night.

The wind whistled by, a glacial billow of snow and sleet that turned the city streets into an icy warzone. Ladybug stumbled to a stop just in front of the park entrance, feet clambering to keep her upright as she turned back to face her partner with a bewildered expression. 

“W-Why?” Her voice, sharp and fast, whipped through the air like a bullet. 

The temperatures had plummeted close to freezing a few hours before, and now she stood there, shivering and stammering in the middle of winter storm, wanting nothing more than to head home and _not_ deal with a question her partner already knew the answer to.

Chat Noir shrugged. “Just curious,” he admitted, gaze passing over her own without much thought. “You mentioned you get some flashes—”

“Look.” Arms crossed against her chest, she hunkered close to her partner for warmth. “Sometimes I’ll remember jumping over a building or climbing the Eiffel Tower, but that’s really it. I already told you. I’m pretty out of it when I sleepwalk.”

“Okay,” Chat Noir said, accepting her answer without further question (though Ladybug knew he wanted to ask more). 

But it was cold, it was dark, and it was late. She wanted to go home and sleep, so it wouldn’t hurt to let her partner’s antics stew another day.

“See you around, chaton,” she said without glancing back.

“Anytime, bug,” he told her, but it was lost in the blustery wind.

*

“Ladybug?”

Her eyes snapped open to meet Chat Noir’s green ones, tinged with worry as she slowly came back to herself, now wide awake. _Funny_ , she thought, _I don’t remember falling asleep._

“Where am I?” she asked him, glancing around, but all she could register was the starry sky above them and the muted glow from a light inside the house beside them. 

A large wall of glass windows was to her right as she sat, perched on the edge of a window sill, which was open despite the blistery temperature outside. It took her a while to remember why the place seemed so familiar, and when it hit her, she almost fell out the window. 

“I-I’m at Adrien’s house,” she said hollowly, horror settling over her like a thin curtain blocking the morning light. “I’m in Adrien’s room. I’m…”

“Trying to crawl into Adrien Agreste’s bed,” Chat Noir offered. “Don’t worry, I caught you before you got there.”

Ladybug turned into the room, unable to find the blonde anywhere. “Where’s Adrien?”

“In the bathroom.” Chat Noir nudged her away from Adrien’s bedroom, and numb with shock, she clambered off of the sill and flung her yo-yo to the sky, looping around the chimney, and scampered onto the roof.

Chat Noir climbed up after her, clipped his staff to his waist, and cocked his head, studying her with a soft smile. Her frantic eyes swept across his face, looking for answers to questions she couldn’t put words to, but all he offered was a low chuckle as he shook his head.

“So,” he drawled out with a sharp smirk, eyebrow quirked high. “How was the décor?”

“Perfect,” she snapped back hotly, a light pink dusting the tips of her ears—both knew it wasn’t from the cold. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Chat Noir crossed his arms against his chest, drumming his claws against his brace. “Oh, I don’t know,” he continued, “Thought you couldn’t remember anything when you sleepwalk.”

A shriek of surprise echoed through the late Paris night as Chat Noir was pitched off the rooftop of the Agreste mansion. 

*

Marinette couldn’t even look at Adrien Agreste the next morning.

*

There was a sigh, hot air tickling the back of her neck, but she merely whined in return, snuggling deeper into the warm mass next to her. 

“Really, bug?” A rustle of blankets filled the air as the warmth shifted beside her, cool fingers brushing back her bangs. 

“ _Chat Noir_ ,” she breathed, and the warmth stilled. 

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as the creaking of mattress springs echoed through her head, but when she opened her eyes, she only saw the dark leather and glowing green of her partner. Without another word, she buried her head in the crook of his neck as his arms encircled her, lifting up up, up, _up_ …

When she woke up the next morning, she was nestled in her bed and tried to pass it off as a dream, but the open skylight above her said otherwise. Part of her was worried Chat Noir knew her true identity and had returned her home, but at the same time, she was also known to go back home on her own. Needless to say, she wasn’t sure what had exactly occurred last night. 

“What happened?” she asked her partner the next day, head cocked to the side to gauge his response.

He licked his dry lips, refusing to meet her questioning eyes. “You just hung around the Seine, and I had to stop you from falling in.”

 _Oh no,_ she thought to herself. _Something happened last night._

“Sure,” she said because she couldn’t press on a topic she didn’t remember anything about.

“Yeah,” Chat Noir said, and she felt her heart break just a little bit.

*

Marinette stared up at her ceiling as midnight crept by.

There wasn’t any reason she should be awake as it was Chat Noir’s night for patrol, meaning it was turn to enjoy a full night’s sleep. It was sleep she desperately needed. During the day, she was tired—so tired. Perhaps it was her subconscious dragging her through the city after she closed her eyes, sprinting across rooftops and climbing the Eiffel Tower, only stopping when Chat Noir woke her up. Even though she was technically still _asleep_ during her sleepwalking episodes, Ladybug activities took energy that she didn’t have. 

Turning onto her side, Marinette clenched her eyes shut tightly, praying that the darkness would crash over her any second now. Restlessness and sleeplessness were quickly becoming permanent fixtures in her life, and they were goddamn awful. 

Truth be told, though, she knew what was keeping her up.

Chat Noir.

The awkwardness he’d greeted her with a few days ago hadn’t dissipated. It clung to him like smoke from a cigar, curling around him in a cold embrace until it fogged the usual twinkle in his eyes and dimmed the brilliant, mega-watt smiles he was fond of. Growing worse as time went on, Marinette knew that enough was enough. As much as she hated to press him about the matters, because it still felt that she was asking a lot of him now a days, things had to get better before they broke apart. 

It was starting to affect their regular superhero duties, and Marinette didn’t know if she could handle it if something went wrong. One wrong move could cost them their Miraculous, and a Ladybug without her partner wasn’t a superhero at all. 

She was determined to get to the bottom of his weird behavior, even if it was the last thing she did.

*

Marinette fell asleep among the mess of fabric and push pins at her desk, the sun hanging low as it dipped below the Paris skyline. She had an hour or so before she had to go out for patrol and hadn’t meant to take a power nap in the middle of designing, but the long day had eventually taken its toll on her. Blinking blearily, she awoke to the soft glow of the midnight moon, nestled against a warm body as a cool wind whistled past. 

A shiver rocketed down her spine, so she buried her face into the crook of someone’s neck, puffing out a long breath as she fought the urge to fall back into a slumber. It took a couple of seconds before she registered she was Ladybug, the Eiffel Tower was definitely not her bedroom, and someone was cuddling against her—someone who had certainly not been present when she’d fallen asleep.

With a yelp of surprise, Ladybug jerked away like she’d touched a boiling pot with her bare hands (though the warm skin against her cheek had certainly felt _wonderful)_ and windmilled herself across the metal beam. A soft chuckle broke her panic, and it took her a moment before she recognized the shape of Chat Noir beside her, knees pulled to his chest and arms clasped lightly around them.

Green eyes bright with laughter, he cocked his head with a playful smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “You like to cuddle when you sleep.”

Mortification was slowly settling in. “Oh my god,” she groaned, ducking her head to hide her burning blush. “I sleepwalked—”

“Nothing I don’t see every night, bug.” Chat Noir turned to face her, legs splaying out on either side of the beam as he swung them lightly through the air. “At least you weren’t cuddling Adrien Agreste this time.”

“I cuddled Adrien— _oh my god_ ,” Ladybug croaked. “You said I didn’t do anything! You stopped me in time!”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, yeah, I lied.” Chat Noir leaned over, stretching his arm around her shoulders, and pulled her closer. “Don’t worry about it though. It was cute. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t funny though.”

“ _Hiss_ -terical,” she deadpanned. 

Chat Noir’s body shuddered as he tried to contain his laughter, a belly-aching, tear-jerking laugh that bubbled deep within him and spilled out between wheezes, snorts, and half-muffled chortles. Ladybug found herself giggling right along with him, the two grasping onto the metal beams of the Eiffel Tower for dear life as their laughter threatened to send them over the edge and hurtling to their deaths. 

“I can’t… b-believe you _punned_!” he gasped out, his laughter morphing into wide-eyed surprise. “I-I didn’t even start it this time!

“Well…” She tried to find the right words, but her hesitation only made her partner laugh harder.

His smile grew impossibly wider. It was the all-too-familiar smile she’d inevitably began to love, one that melted her frayed and frazzled nerves into a cool warmth. Sighing to herself, she rested her chin on her knee, fingers playing her suit, and only stared at her partner with a fond look. He laughed without restraint, and it was like the whole world turned a little bit brighter. As mortified and humiliated as she should have been, Ladybug couldn’t make her indignation spark back up.

“Does it bother you?” she asked suddenly, changing the topic abruptly before Chat Noir had a handle on his emotions once more. “My sleepwalking?”

She earned herself a questioning stare, followed by Chat Noir shaking his head hurriedly in concern. “Of course not. Why would you even think that?”

A sliver of unease settled in the pit of her stomach, and she bit her lip before continuing, “Just… The last few days you’ve been really quiet and tired, and if I’m keeping you up, that wasn’t what I wanted when I asked for your help—”

“You’re my partner, Ladybug.” Chat Noir gestured between them, a corner of his lips twitching upwards. “It’s kind of my job to take care of you.”

“Babysitting your sleepwalking partner _isn’t_ part of the job description,” she admonished and despite herself, a light giggle leapt into the cool winter air. 

Under the soft moonlight, Chat Noir stared at her with wide eyes, like he couldn’t quite believe her in that moment, and tried to form a reply through stuttering breathes as she waited quietly. It was sort of endearing in a way—the way he couldn’t find the words to speak—because her partner was the type of person who filled a silence with rambles and puns, no matter the situation (which, sadly, included akuma battles and other life-or-death incidents). 

This quiet, though rare, brought some moments of peace and comfort, instead of the caution and concern it usually deserved. Chat Noir was a master of many disguises, able to turn almost anything into a mask—whether it was silence or a smile—so to see him so open and vulnerable for once, it certainly changed things. It was nice.

“Being a superhero doesn’t fit a certain criteria,” he told her a few seconds later, having finally found his voice. “It’s not just about saving the world—there’s more to it than just… noble impulses and heroic acts, you know? It’s protecting people, especially the ones you love, and that includes your partner.” He placed his hand over her roaming fingers. “Protecting you comes with the job, and nothing you do is going to stop me from being the superhero and the partner you need.”

Her heart lurched in her chest, banging against her ribcage like a wild animal. _Ones you love, your partner_ , he’d said. It was funny how such a simple phrase could make her heart stumble in its typical _pitter-patter_ pattern, stuttering over the beats it’d been dancing to since she was born. 

He didn’t mean anything by it, she tried to tell herself, but her heart was still thundering away, desperate to be heard by anyone who would listen. It wasn’t something she could ignore, no matter how hard she tried. Ladybug couldn’t decide if it bothered her though. While she spent a majority of her time surrounded by her family and friends, Chat Noir always remained a special part of her life. There was something special between them, though they had never labelled because there was really no need for it. They knew it was there, and that’s all that mattered.

Perhaps it was Chat Noir putting a name to their connection that stumped her. Love was love, she supposed, in whatever shape it took. 

Which was why she suddenly found herself leaning forward and capturing his lips with hers. 

The kiss was soft and sweet, like a touch of a fingertip ghosting down her face, and Chat Noir was frozen as she started to move. Ladybug held her breath, refusing to pull away even when the itch to inhale burned in her chest, and kept her lips pressed against his. He smelled like hair gel, she noticed, his hair smelled like hair gel and shampoo, and his lips tasted like strawberry tarts and hairspray, which left a bitter tang on the tip of her tongue. However, she pushed past it, finally breathing as he parted his lips and met her with equal fervor.

He was unsure and stilted, almost robotic in his movements, but when his lips moved against hers, they were like water, the push and pull of a tide against the shoreline. His hands pressed against her hips, clenched into tight fists like he didn’t know what to do with them. Ladybug pulled away for a moment, the span of a single heartbeat, as she met his gaze, eyes glazed over in wonder, before she was reaching for his hands and wrapping them around her torso. She placed her own on his face, cupping his cheeks with her gloved hands, skin cool beneath her finger save for the warm pink burning on the tops of his cheeks. 

Ladybug tipped his face up to hers and gently kissed his lips again, but it soon turned to something else entirely. Like a spark had erupted between them, a warm ache settling in the pit of her stomach, the kiss turned harder, deeper, longer—like it held more meaning than just the simple _thank-you_ she’d originally intended. His chest rumbled against hers, almost like a purr, and she let out an airy laugh at the thought of making her kitty cat _purr_. 

Ladybug pressed her forehead to Chat Noir’s, noses brushing as she breathed out a long puff of air, deciding to finally break away before anything more came out of it. 

“W-What was that for?” Chat Noir stammered, licking his lips as she settled back on her haunches.

“A _thank you_ ,” she told him, heart pounding away in her chest. 

“Do I get to give you a _you’re welcome_?” he asked her, breathless, like he still couldn’t believe she’d just kissed him.

“Don’t push your luck, chaton.” She poked his nose with her finger, a small smile overtaking her face. 

After watching her for a long while, enough to make her feel anxious, Chat Noir grinned back at her, blinding white teeth and all. “You know, if you keep giving me mixed signals, this cat might get the wrong idea.”

“When have I ever given you mixed signals?” she shot back.

Chat Noir leaned forward, swinging his legs around to the front of the beam, and ticked off the evidence on one hand. “You kissed me for being your knight in shining armor, you like to cuddle with me when you sleepwalk—” Ladybug’s jaw dropped because she hadn’t realized she’d done it _before_. “—and—”

“And I love you, you stupid cat,” she whispered.

Chat Noir froze, fingers hovering in the air, flashing a peace sign to all of Paris below. “You—” He gaped, eyes comically wide. “You _love_ me?”

“Well you’re my partner. It’d be crazy if I didn’t.” She peered at him with a soft expression, propping her chin up on his shoulder. 

Another flush spilled over his face. “I…Yeah, bug. Me too.” __

_Me too._

*

Sometimes, Ladybug still sleepwalked across Paris, and on the rare occasion, Marinette would too. But it got easier, dealing with life and love and all the other responsibilities that fell between them, and at least she knew she wasn’t alone. Realizing that fact made everything better, like admitting she loved Chat Noir was the first step on the path in the right direction, and wherever it took her from this point on, her partner would be at her side. 

“So any sleepwalking shenanigans last night?” he’d ask as she swung over the Notre Dame, landing with a soft _thud_ next to him.

“Oh, just the usual,” she chimed back with a sharp smile.

“Just checking out the Agreste décor then?”

_“Chat Noir!”_

A shriek of surprise echoed through the late Paris night as Chat Noir was pitched off the rooftop of the Notre Dame.

*

The Best Things in the World by Chat Noir and Ladybug

1.      Strawberry scones from the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

2.      The sound of a pencil scratching against a paper as you pen a new design.

3.      Feeling like flying when you’re running across rooftops.

4.      Feeling like you actually got enough sleep when you wake up in the morning.

5.      Being with your partner.

6.      …Being with your partner. 


End file.
